Wednesday, December 18, 2013

13 started with slogans that this
year belongs to you (saal tera hain.) Year started with outrage over Nirbhaya.
Obama took over his second term. Indian economy sluggish and Govt at helm
paralyzed. What has happened over the year? Year of 11 was revolution. Year of
12 was year of failures. I would define this year as semi cooked. We had semi
finals of elections won handsomely by opposition and has given rise to another
uncooked player called AAP. Government
tried to be decisive but again failed on all fronts the situation being
under cooked. BJP has shown hope in declaring PM candidate who definitely will
mean business irrespective of empty rhetoric of unacceptability around him
making him appear semi cooked again. Year 14 will be landmark as we will see
finals and finally someone will complete the process.

On International front, Obama
took over his second reign which took severe beating during standoff on
healthcare reforms which were found under cooked, Snowden snooping accusations.
But then did some diplomacy with Putin and Iran over Syria and Iran nuclear.
Thankfully US economy has shown signs of recovery due to inherent basics. China
continues to be aggressor across East Asia and had unstable issues with India.
Though Chinese growth story is not impacted by global recession as it has
Indian story but some sheen veered off. Also basic issues of freedom and
separatism impacted it internally. Arab revolution countries continue to be
unstable like Egypt, lybia. Syrian crisis now has taken serious turn. European
economy has done very little to show signs of recovery though Northern
countries remain solid as usual. Pakistan the perpetual migraine had elections
and Nawaz Sharif returning but with imminent afgan pullout things stand fragile
and its warning for India as well. SAARC neighbours had their set of problems
where India has to be very careful especially in Bangladesh, Srilanka and
Maldives. The ASEAN movement participation was the only positive for India.

On domestic side, country remains
indecisive, paralysed and corrupt. On defences matter we remain weak as our
soldiers were killed and mutilated. On foreign policy we remain weak. We had
new scams and old scams returning. We have dual power centres: MMS vs Gandhi
family. We had corrupt UPA allies having their pound of flesh. We had good for
nothing ministers. In any other country, this kind of performance had no chance
of returning to power in 14. But in India, things work differently and our
voting patterns, politics we cannot say that for sure. BJP won in 4 states (I
include Delhi as its largest party). System has shown what good meaning
executives can do. People like them. I don’t say BJP is incorrupt but Nation
had done well from 99-04 under Vajpayee and UPA1 reaped benefits before
destroying economy since 09 under UPA2. AAP is new entrant and its largely
driven by individual egos. The success in Delhi can be attributed to situation
in Delhi which saw public anger during Anna agitation and Nirbhaya protest (13
saw more cases like Gudiya etc). But their agenda seems more flawed than
communists and even UPA in terms of free lunch promises. The idealism can sound
good but my advice to AAP is to be more mature and wait till 19)

Indian economy has gone worse and
if you add impact of faulty UPA promised of food security, RTE etc, 2014 sounds
worse. Only hope is elections and reforms which can be as a part of election
agenda. Also RBI under new leader remains firm against politics. Slowdown has
impacted various sectors. IT industry has taken up new challenges in cloud,
mobile, healthcare. Many new products
are emerging from India. Good reports out of silcon valley also help us
indirectly. Education though suffered thanks to political intervention.
Aviation industry has some new hope after kingfisher debacle in form of tata
ventures. World business has some new paradigms opened by internet 3.0
Analytics, Big data and social media 2.0. Core manufacturing, clean and non
conventional energy have taken centre stage

Environment continues to suffer
and we have seen more catastrophes in 13 than any other year. In India we had a
semi man made disaster in Uttarakhand where thousands of people lost lives.
Worldwide Hurricanes and earthquakes pounded people. It’s high time people do
something to mitigate and help future generations.

On sports side, to start with
cricket we had God retiring. Cricket will never be same. Nostalgia hit us when
we actually realized that how we have evolved along with Tendulkar as a
country. Of course in 12 we had seen lowest point of home defeat against
England. 13 saw revival which again is half cooked. We won at home vs Aussies.
New team India won champions trophy and few odi series. But the real test (or
final) will start in SA during Dec 13 and later in Eng, Aus, NZ in 14. But new
generation has sown some promise. Bowling continues to be a worry. On world
scene Aussies are reviving and England seem on decline. SAF continues to rule
but unless they have some ICC silverware they will not be treated as champions. Viswanathan Anand’s reign ended in Chennai.
Leander amazed everyone by winning US open doubles at the age of 42. Saina
struggled. Hockey team struggled. Politics and drug again hampered other
sports. Lance Armstrong was disgraced and corruption in soccer and tennis also
saw its ugly head. IPL in India was disgraced by spot fixing as well. Federer had an ordinary year when Joker ,
Murray and Nadal shared the spoils. All look forward to big year for Indian
cricket with away series, ICCT20 and biggest soccer carnival in Brazil .

On cinema, again new directors
and genres tried but stars and half cooked idiotic comedies in 100 crore school
ruled. Hollywood also continues to have vampires and werewolves to rule though
there is new trend of cinematic dramatization of classics. Marathi drama saw
top actors performing but we lost many stalwarts. Art and Music saw some new
entrants with promise.

On state front, even in later of
14 we will have finals. Its really time
to change this governance where there is corruption, law and order situation is
so grave that activists are murdered in broad daylight even i city like Pune.
What can you expect from such team of self serving leaders? Do we have option?
New parties again serve interest of their leaders with large egos. Opposition is
totally divided. Its high time people unite and provide stong option.
Thankfully 13 saw good monsoons as compared to the drought situation in 12.
Hope irrigation scams wont impact in 14.

City of Pune saw man made tragedies
like Shindewadi. BDP, new DP, BRT, Metro, water situation remain unchanged. City
lacks leadership and hope in 14 we have one. Expessway and National highways
around pune continue to be death traps. We wish real change in 14

Lets hope 14 brings all those
changes and cook the broth fully. Bit it comes with warning that if cooked more
it will be burnt. And thats a possibility as well.

Follow by Email

Become a facebook fan of Cityblog

Contribute to Cityblog

If You have any issues/topics/event/happenings in your sorroundings/greivances/ interesting snaps/lighter moments/food /entertainment , jobs, events etc to contribute to cityblog , pls email us on cityblogpuneonline@yahoo.com with your name, number, photos etc. We promise to include same in our blog/newspaper.